by Rik Hunik
As strong as my talent is, there is still some guessing involved, and sometimes plenty of legwork. I didn't relish the thought of searching for the necklace along the waterfront, but fortunately I had developed some contacts that might cut down on my legwork. I had a pretty good idea where to start looking.
As to how the necklace got to the waterfront, well, a handsome, gray-haired man stepped into her bedroom, grabbed it out of the box like he knew exactly where it was, and slipped it into his pocket. I assumed he was my mother's latest beau, so I couldn't mention his part without upsetting my mother and becoming a target for her illogical ire, which irked me and complicated the issue. Somehow I had to make him pay, or at least get him away from my mother for good without getting her mad at me.
When I came out of my trance she was standing, watching me. "Well, what did I do with it this time?"
I pretended I needed a bit more information. "Where did you go the last time you wore it?"
She thought about that for a while, then said, "It was about a week ago, when I went with Orfidius to Neptune's Palace, that fancy sea food restaurant that recently opened down at the east end of the Old Harbor. Have you eaten there yet?"
"No, not yet." It was a bit out of my price range but I had considered taking Zena there.
"Do you think I lost it there?"
I knew it had disappeared from her jewelry box just a couple of days ago but I said, "I get the feeling it's down by the water, so that's a possibility. I'll check into it this evening."
"Thank you."
"I really wish you would be more careful with that necklace. The day will come when I won't be able to find it."
She shook her head and smiled. "Your father had a powerful binding spell placed on it when he presented it to me, so as long as I'm alive it will never be long separated from me."
I winced. "There are ways to break spells, or block them, or get around them, and even the most powerful spells wear out when they're repeatedly taxed."
She laughed and patted my arm. "You worry too much. This bauble wouldn't be worth what it would take to break the spell."
I shook my head. "That's a very valuable piece of jewelry. I know people who have died for less."
"It's a very powerful spell, and if the spell ever fails, which I'm sure it won't, I'll still have you and your talent to find it for me."
I rolled my eyes. How could I argue with logic like that?
"In fact, it's conceivable that your talent manifested because of the spell. Now go."
That was an interesting notion. I kissed her on the cheek and got out of there.
Chapter 6
Heading north to Old City I made a slight detour past Neptune's Palace, where the clock in the square said it was nearly two o'clock, so I hurried up to Barber Street to find the address Belita's mother had given me. She wasn't paying me much but she was paying, and it wouldn't take me long to get an impression of Belita. If it didn't lead me right to her it would at least give me something to fix on so I could start searching. Without that I would be just another normal poking around.
Barber Street is in the Northwest Quadrant, but it's not part of Old City and it's not as narrow as streets the streets there, but new growth of the city to the east has left it behind to age and decay. The address turned out to be the Graccus Laundry, a family business by the look of it, in a two-story stucco building, a bit rundown but clean, stuck between others nearly the same. It had a fairly narrow frontage but here, away from Old City, the blocks were bigger and buildings got pretty long.
There are lots of laundries in the city and competition is fierce, but I knew they did good work here because I used their services myself, which explained why the name and address had seemed familiar, though I didn't remember till now because I had only been here the one time I set up my account. After that it was just a weekly visit from the boy with the laundry cart.
When I walked in I was assaulted by the heat and humidity. A woman who looked like a younger version of Lucina greeted me from behind a counter, her youthful prettiness already beginning to fade, worn away by hard work.
"I'm here to see Lucina," I told her. I could see the curiosity brightening in her eyes but I stood patiently and volunteered no further information.
After several seconds she said, "Wait here. I'll get her." She disappeared through a door and I heard her climbing a flight of stairs. A few minutes later she returned with Lucina in tow.
As soon as Lucina saw me she said, "Oh thank you so much for coming. Please, please come upstairs." The daughter remained at her post but turned to watch me. I flashed a smile at her just as I closed the door behind me.
At the top of the stairs my feet stepped onto worn carpet while my head rose into the warm, spicy smell of a recent meal. I refused any refreshments but she kept insisting until I accepted a glass of water, but I didn't sit down. I took a drink and asked her about Belita's last day.
"She worked downstairs, folding laundry, like she does every day. She works hard and she doesn't complain, but she likes to go out at night. Yesterday after dinner she went out with a couple of her friends."
"Do you know where they went?"
"No."
"Do you know the names of the friends she went out with, and where I might find them?" She gave me their names, their home addresses, and where they worked and I wrote it all down. "Thank you, this is all very helpful, but there's just one more thing. I need something personal of hers, something she's worn, and I'd like to see her bedroom, where she sleeps."
Lucina looked at me aghast.
I sighed and refrained from rolling my eyes. "Relax, I'm not a pervert, this is just how my magic works. I don't absolutely need to see her bedroom, but it might help a lot. At the very least I need something she wore for a long time, like a ring, or something she wore frequently, preferably not washed since she wore it."
"Ah, I have just the thing," Lucina said. She slipped through a door, careful not to open it too wide, and came back out a few minutes later to hand me a wooden comb, of the type women use, not to comb their hair, but to hold it in place. There were a couple of wavy black hairs still stuck in it.
"That's perfect," I said, taking the comb from her. I got no immediate impression, just the smooth feeling of the fine, dark-grained wood. Of the five elements, I have the strongest affinity for wood, so I was a bit surprised when I didn't get any impression.
I regulated my breathing and went into a light trance, holding the comb with both hands to get as much contact as possible. I rubbed the comb, feeling it's smoothness, I touched the hairs, trying to connect with the person it came from. I saw a pretty girl, wearing a frilly, pale blue dress, standing in front of an olive tree in the sunshine. She had bright blue eyes, a wide, cheerful smile and thick, wavy, black hair that was pinned back from her face with a pair of combs like the one I held. The picture was clear to me and I recognized the park, but I couldn't pick up the slightest hint of where she was now.
When I opened my eyes I saw Lucina watching me closely. "Thank you," I said. "May I borrow this? It will make it easier for me to find her if I take it with me." She nodded. I told her I would let her know of any progress I made in her case and left.
I found Belita's friends only a block away, working right where Lucina had said they would be. They were eager to help, spilling such out a torrent of details about what they wore, where they went and who they saw and what they did that I had to keep interrupting to get them back on track.
Boiled down to the essentials, they had gone drinking and dancing in two night clubs and while they were dancing in the second one with a couple of men Belita had disappeared. That wasn't like Belita. They stayed in the club for another half hour without seeing her, then went home because they had to work the next day. They had been too busy to think about her today and until now had assumed she made it home safely. I got the name of the night club, but I would have to wait until evening to pick up her trail from there.
The sunligh
t dimmed and the temperature dropped and I looked up to see a cloud passing in front of the sun, with more clouds growing overhead and massing in the west. It looked like it would rain tonight.
# # #
While I was in the neighborhood I had one more place to go and I wasn't looking forward to the visit. Stella's address was a block or so into Old City, in a second floor apartment with an exterior entrance, accessible by a rickety, wooden staircase. As I climbed it I got a strong impression that a lot of men came this way. I knocked on the door and Stella opened it.
"I didn't think you would come."
"You paid me for half an hour. I figure I can spare ten minutes for you now."
She stood aside and let me in. The apartment was even smaller than mine. It was clean but a musky odor lingered in the air under the pervasive scent of perfume. "What do you want?"
"I need to see her room and I need something she wore, preferably not washed."
Stella looked at me like I was kinky and I knew I'd have to get used to such reactions or be more careful how I worded my request, but she said, "I have just the thing." I followed her into Laura's room and she pulled open a drawer. "Some of her clients request them."
This was getting way too kinky for me right now so I shook my head and said, "Maybe I'd prefer something else."
She smiled mischievously and handed me a silk glove. "She used to wear this frequently until she lost the other one."
"That's perfect," I said, feeling just a bit foolish as I took it from her. I got an instantaneous impression of Laura, a voluptuous and hot blooded young woman, a bit on the short side, with dark hair, dark skin and dark eyes. She was a licensed prostitute working the nearby streets and she brought her customers here. No wonder the police weren't looking very hard.
"What's wrong?" Stella interrupted.
"Nothing. Give me a minute." I stayed away from the bed because I knew what kind of impression I would get there, and it would only distract me, so I concentrated instead on her dressing table and the glove in my hand. I closed my eyes, regulated my breath, went into my trance, checked for malignancies, then opened my mind.
I got a strong and immediate impression that she enjoyed her job, and a temptation to focus on that, but I pushed it away as irrelevant and concentrated harder. If she was alive I should be able to get her current location, but no matter how hard I concentrated the only impression I got was wet stone.
I opened my eyes to see Stella watching me closely. I said, "I can't be sure, but I think Laura is still alive."
Hope flared in her eyes but she was skeptical by nature. "How do you know?"
"Magic." I wasn't inclined to give this woman a lengthy explanation, especially since my magic hadn't worked very well.
"So where is she?"
"Someplace where there is wet stone."
"That could be almost anywhere," she said, voicing my own conclusion.
I shrugged. "That's all I can tell now. But it will help if you can tell me all about the last time you saw her."
"It was about a week ago, and she went out to get a customer just like she did every night, except this time she didn't come back."
"I see. Do you have any idea where she was that night?"
She gave me a wry grin. "She never goes far. Hunting out of her territory can get her in trouble, and life is hard enough without asking for trouble."
I nodded. "That's for sure. Can you tell me exactly how many days she's been gone?"
Her eyes drifted up as she counted the days backward on her fingers, mumbling to herself the whole time, then held up one hand with her fingers splayed. "Five days."
I nodded like that was significant, but it was just another piece of information, not much help by itself. I asked a few more questions about Laura's territory, who knew her, who might have seen something happen to her. Finding out what they knew meant more legwork for me tonight, if I could find the time.
I put the glove in a pocket, thanked her for her time and got out of there.
Chapter 7
Looking for Carina's husband had taken up most of the morning, my other cases another hour. Before I proceeded on Carina's case I wanted to hear what Zena had to tell me, and my other paying cases weren't paying much so I didn't feel guilty about not pursuing them very ardently while I took some time this afternoon to look for my mother's missing necklace.
Nothing in Old City is more than half a mile away from anything else in Old City, so it didn't take me long to walk to my destination down on Harbor Avenue, which runs along the north shore of the Old Harbor. On one side is a marina full of boats and ships of all sizes and shapes, on the other side are lots sailor bars, tenement houses, and weather-beaten warehouses, some of them two or three blocks long.
Three times already this month, while searching for a client's jewelry, my talent had led me to this particular, inconspicuous, perfectly legal, business enterprise, "Farris Trading: Imports & Exports" according to the sign. On my first visit I figured out that the legal business was just a front, but when I tried to break through that front I landed trussed up at the feet of Farris the Fence. When I identified myself and explained my business he pondered my fate, then decided he had a need for my talent, so I agreed to find one item for him free of charge.
We made a deal. I swore I would never turn him in to the police, and always made sure his name was never mentioned, as long as he turned over to me any client's item for the price he had paid for it, usually only a fraction of what it was worth, and far less than he could have sold it for. He avoided a lot of trouble that way. In return he swore that as long as I kept my word he wouldn't kill me or have me killed, but if I took too much profit away from him I would owe him a service.
I entered the door under a sign that read "Office" and marched right past three desks to the door marked "Private". I stated my name and business to the tough guy guarding the door and a few minutes later I was ushered in.
Farris jumped up from his seat and came around his big desk to greet me. "Hey Berk, what brings you here?" He kept smiling, so he must have had a profitable morning. Whenever I showed up at his establishment I usually cut into his profit but he was always friendly to me. I didn't like his business, and I was never sure how much of his friendliness was just an act, but I had a hard time not liking him, so I preferred to keep my distance.
"I'm looking for a gift for my mother."
"Your mother?" His eyebrows went way up and his smile slipped a bit.
"Yes, my mother. It's a necklace." Even if it hadn't passed through his hands I thought there was a chance he knew something about it, and sure enough, as soon as I started describing it he held up his hand.
"I can't help you. I don't have it." He shrugged.
"But you've seen it."
He knew me and my talent so he didn't try to deny that, but he sighed and retreated behind his desk before he said, "You're right. It was here."
"You bought it." I was only guessing about that part but he confirmed it.
"Yeah yeah, I did, but like I said, I don't have it anymore. Somebody snatched it up only a few hours after it came into my possession."
"Who bought it?"
He looked at me kind of sideways and gave me a crooked little shrug. "You know I can't tell you that."
I felt like grabbing him and shaking him until he cooperated, but ratting on associates was never part of our deal, and even if he didn't stab me himself I knew a couple of his henchmen were only seconds away. I acknowledged him with a nod, then calmed myself and went into a light, brief trance. To Farris I seemed only to take a few deep breaths, but it was enough for my talent to pick up a picture of a ship. "Then just tell me the name of the ship it's on."
He set his jaw and shook his head but I saw a glint of fear in his eyes.
I smiled and pressed my advantage. "You might as well tell me because you know I'm going to find out anyhow, and you're just as likely to be blamed either way."
Farris sighed and gave in. "I hope
you're right. It's on The Lion Of The Sea."
"Thanks, that's all I needed to know."
"Right. Now get out of here."
I took my leave immediately, before I wore out my welcome even further. He had already been paid for the necklace so I wasn't going to cost him anything, but he didn't like to be pushed around, even on a minor matter like this, and I knew better than to press my luck.
# # #
At the west end of Harbor Avenue a military fort stands guard over the bottleneck entrance to the bay. At the south end of that massive structure I located the shipping office, but The Lion Of The Sea wasn't listed there, which meant it wasn't in the Old Harbor, so I followed the Coast Road north.
Past the fort the road angled to the northeast. The sun, poking through a break in the clouds, sparkled off the water of the Bay of Lions. The only thing between me and the Mediterranean Sea was was an expanse of water with a bare rock thrusting up through the surface.
On the seaward side of the Coast Road, every three hundred yards or so, is a small bay, not as protected as Old Harbor but still suitable as a port. Because of some decades-old politics each has its own government shipping office, crammed into a little corner of another building. At the third and final one a bored clerk gave me a dock number for The Lion Of The Sea and the name of the company she dealt with.
The company office was a shaky lean-to stuck to the side of a warehouse. I braced myself and went inside to ask a few questions. The Lion didn't sail for another four days and she had a few berths open for passengers, so I pretended to be interested and got a guided tour of the ship.
